Serena Williams, right, and Venus Williams, celebrate during their first-round doubles match against Lucie Hradecká and Linda Nosková, of the Czech Republic at the US Open in 2022.
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Serena Williams will return to Wimbledon action for the first time in four years later this month when she appears alongside her sister Venus as a doubles wildcard.
Serena, 44, had not played a professional tennis match since the US Open in 2022 before she returned to the HSBC Championships (formerly Queen’s Club) on June 9. She had not played in Wimbledon since exiting at the first round in 2022 after going down to France’s Harmony Tan.
Venus, who will be 46 on Wednesday, made a return to tennis after her own hiatus at the DC Open last July before bowing out in the first round of the US Open single’s against Karolína Muchová. She later reached the quarter-final of the women’s doubles tournament.
Venus and Serena have won the Wimbledon doubles title six times, with Serena winning seven singles titles and Venus winning five. They last won a doubles title in 2016, when Serena also claimed the women’s singles title.
Neither player is scheduled to take a wild card in the singles draw, but one women’s wild card slot remains open.
Speaking at a press conference at Queen’s Club on June 8, Serena did not rule out a return to singles tennis but said should would likely need more training before doing so.
“I feel like I probably need to train a little bit more if I want to play singles,” she said. “We will see if I get there, and if not, that’s not my journey right now.”
She has made an inauspicious return to tennis when her doubles partner Victoria Mboko suffered a knee injury at Queen’s, forcing their withdrawal from the tournament after their round-of-16 victory over third seeds Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.
She subsequently lost her opening-round match at the Berlin Open on Tuesday alongside Muchová after the pair went down in straight sets against Routliffe and Giuliana Olmos.
Serena won 23 singles grand slam titles before stepping away from tennis in 2022, insisting that she was not retiring but “evolving” away from the sport. She gave birth to her second daughter, Adira River Ohanian, in August 2023 and has focused on business ventures over the past four years, including clothing and lifestyle brands.
Serena is just one singles title behind Margaret Court’s record of 24, which stands as a record in both men and women’s tennis.
